In the production of semiconductor circuit arrangements (chips), round semiconductor wafers having a thickness of hundreds of μm serve as starting material. From this material, the individual components are produced simultaneously at the surface to a layer depth of several μm by means of various process steps. In the first stages of the fabrication sequence, the chips are thus arranged in matrix-type fashion on the wafer and interconnected by substrate material.
Standard separating methods are usually used for singulating the chips into independent components. A sawing step has predominantly been used hitherto for chip singulation. In this case, a very thin saw blade is used to sever the region between the components on the substrate carrier.
Besides the sawing technique described, recently other techniques have also been employed for chip singulation. One example thereof is the use of the laser cutting method for chip singulation.
Another method is based on the “dicing-before-grinding method” wherein the chips are singulated by forming separating trenches having a specific depth in the wafer and then thinning the wafer on the rear side as far as said separating trenches.